Slips and falls are one of the most common causes of injuries and fatalities in the general community and the workplace. Slips are primarily caused by a slippery surface and compounded by spilled contaminants or ironically from a build-up of contaminants caused by regular floor cleanings.
The force that allows a person to walk without slipping is commonly referred to as “traction.” Common experience shows that dry concrete sidewalks have good traction, while icy surfaces or freshly waxed floors can have low traction; even regular floor cleanings without waxing cause a slippery contamination. Technically, traction is measured as the “coefficient of friction” (COF). A higher coefficient of friction means more friction, and therefore more traction. The coefficient of friction depends on two things: the quality of both the walking surface and the soles of the shoes worn by the walker.
To prevent slips and falls, a high coefficient of friction (COF) between the shoe and walking surface is needed. On icy, wet, and oily surfaces, the coefficient of friction (COF) can be as low as 0.10 with shoes that are not slip resistant. A COF of 0.40 to 0.50 or more is needed for excellent traction. To put these figures in perspective, a brushed concrete surface and a rubber heel will often show a COF greater than 1.0. Leather soles on a wet smooth surface, such as ceramic tile or ice, may have a COF as low as 0.10.
Footwear traction devices or safety shoes are known in the art and are designed to provide a high coefficient of friction (COF) in footwear that is slip-resistant. Currently, shoes with soft rubber soles and heels with rubber cleats are manufactured and sold as the primary means of reducing slip and fall accidents. However, rubber outsoles currently attempt to grip, not pierce, the microscopic roughness of the floor surface, as illustrated in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a prior art representation of the microscopic interaction with a floor surface 11 using slip-resistant outsoles 10. Fall prevention products historically have focused on slip-resistant footwear made of rubber compounds 10 that attempt to grip the microscopic floor roughness 11. Dangerous slips still occur especially when moisture or contaminants 12 reduce friction. Moisture and contaminants 12 can interfere with the sole grip causing the outsole 10 to rapidly slide forward resulting in a dangerous loss of balance.
In a 2010 website: http://www.waininjurylaw.com/library/slip-and-fall-statictics-washington-state.cfm, the Andrew Kim Law Firm, PLLC reports basic slip and fall statistics, taken from the National Safety Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics which include the following data Over one million people in the Unites States experience a significant slip, trip, or fall each year. An average of 17,000 Americans die from their slip and fall accidents. Falls account for 25% of serious injuries in the workplace. A death from an on-the-job slip and fall is estimated to cost an average of $940,000 on top of the victim's family's loss and trauma. Slips and falls are the third largest cause of workplace injuries. Slips and falls are the single most common reason for visits to the emergency room. The average cost of a slip and fall injury is $28,000, including medical bills, physical therapy, and missed wages. Slips and falls are the number two cause of accidental death and disability, following automobile accidents that are number one. Slips and falls lead to millions of lost workdays per year in North America. Seventy percent of slips and falls occur on level ground. Fifty five percent of people over age 40 have suffered a debilitating slip and fall accident during their lifetimes. The various costs to society of accidents and deaths due to slips and falls are based on 2010 U.S. dollar values.
Thus, beyond the human toll caused by slip-and-fall accidents, there is a financial toll that should be the concern of every one. The social burdens related to slip-and-fall injuries are tremendous. So, even if a personal injury as the result of a slip-and-fall accident is avoided, the impact of the burden placed on society is in the form of higher insurance rates and higher costs for products and services to all persons.
It is important to the U.S. economy, the robustness of the U.S. population and the heavy burden on the healthcare system, to reduce and eliminate the occurrence of slips and falls by any means necessary.
Healthy people utilize the same series of movements to walk safely and preserve balance; there are ten or more standard movements utilized when attempting to recover from a slip. Slips and falls happen so quickly most of the fall prevention movements go unnoticed, without the aid of specialized technical equipment. Once a traditional rubber heel first strikes the floor or floor contaminant, a series of natural recovery movements begin, less than a quarter of a second is available to recover. The limited amount of time available to recover requires the traction apparatus to complement the instinctive human recovery motions.
The known prior art includes several patents listed below that describe anti-slip attachments or outsoles of shoes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,879,864 to Exley describes a toothed bar which is pivotably attachable to the sides of the heel of a shoe or overshoe so that it may be rotated, when used, into a position on the exterior surface of the heel to furnish a gripping surface on snow or ice.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,748 to Harrison discloses an anti-slip attachment for attachment to the bottom surface of a shoe outsole to prevent a wearer from slipping on a surface. The attachment is a plurality of flexible traction strips having an adhesive surface on a first side and a roughened traction surface on a second side.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,596,889 to Pasternak et al describes footwear outsoles with a plurality of tread members in the shape of stars to provide slip resistant footwear.
The above patents disclose the state of the art in relation to footwear safety devices and attachments, there is still a need for an apparatus or device that provides traction recovery and minimizes or reduces the slips and falls of people.
Improvements are needed so that people can recover from a slip or at least minimize fall forces. Such an improvement would save valuable time and resources by minimizing or decreasing the lost production of workers and significant costs of healthcare and treatment for slip and fall injuries. Such an improvement would not require re-tooling the manufacture of existing safety shoes; also, it should be an inexpensive device that is universally acceptable to all shoe wearers; added as an accessory and result in a significant decrease in slip and fall accidents in the U.S. or wherever this problem exists. The present invention provides the improvements needed and fulfills a void in the safety footwear industry.